Bunny holes and Bad royalty
by Mousewolf
Summary: COMPLETLY REWRITTEN! Faery stories are often softened over the decades, 'for the little ones.'  The Big Bad Wolf was never shot, and faeries aren't little twinkly things that live in flowers. Who's to say the same doesn't go for wonderland?
1. The broken house of cards

_**A/N: Er, okay, not really sure how to explain this. Basically, I woke up one morning and mymuse decided to add some more on to the original, then I went, 'But it's already finished! That bird hath flown! That fish is cooked!' Then my muse replied, 'Not really. The plot's got more holes than swiss cheese.' So anyway, Ladles and jellispoons, I present to you: Bunny Holes and Bad Royalty: The rewrite.

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_**PROLOUGE**_

_Off with your head, _

_The red queen said_

_And rest of you, go back to bed_

The Cheshire cat was worried. Not that he hadn't been worried before, of course. But now he was concerned enough that he thought it a good idea to go and see that damnable over-sized grub. He slid from his usual vantage point, a tall, heavily knotted and scratch-scarred tree on the edge of the tulgy wood, materialised on top of one of the giant mushrooms in the caterpillar's realm, and turned to the blue insect, who was sitting on top of the next cap.

"Whatever happens, will happen." It said, smoke drifting from its mouth as it spoke.

The cat blinked. "I haven't asked anything yet!"

The caterpillar raised an eyebrow, and seemed to notice him for the first time. "Oh, it's you is it? What do you want?"

"Something's coming, isn't it?" Hissed the feline, his fur bristling and orange eyes flashing. He wasn't stupid - there was a time and a place for riddles and cryptic speech, and this wasn't it. "I can feel it. Hell, a blind dog could see it. I only wish I were blind."

"She wasn't mad enough, was the problem." Muttered the caterpillar, under its breath.

CC frowned, pausing from scratching under his collar with a hind paw (his own, more's the pity) "Who wasn't mad enough?"

The caterpillar ignored the question, only replying, "My dear boy, there's only nothing yet to come. _Something_'s already here."

The cat's bones felt it first, then his fur, already growing and bristling in defence of the noise his ears were just beginning to pick up on. Yet, no matter how faint, he'd never mistake that sound, the low, rhythmic pound of feet, a sound that had been lost in the waking world since roman times.

The card guards were coming.

The Cheshire cat turned back to the caterpillar, already to big to fit on the mushroom. The oracle and guardian of the diamonds nodded at him. "Go. Hatter and hare will need your help."

_Whatever happens, will happen._ The words echoed in the feline's mind, as he gave The Seer one last, curt nod, and as his body began to fade away, to a little way from the from the path of the soldiers.

The place he chose was the hollow behind a tree, right in the centre of the tulgy wood. He could smell, faintly behind the inky stink of the cards, the arrowroot muskiness of the Jabberwock somewhere near, but wasn't concerned - the draconian beast was much more passive in his old age, after a youth of fighting humans who fancied themselves knights in the chess borders, and rarely gave the queen's soldiers any bother, so they steed clear of him, and he of them.

A soft noise jerked CC from his musings. He turned, lips already in a snarl, but it was only the Hare, crouched low and moving on all fours, and the Hatter, a serious, focussed expression on the humanoid's usually vaguely good natured features. The feline, now easily twice as big as waking tiger, gave them a glance before twitching an ear to signal to more forwards.

After what seemed like an age, (and could well have been, considering the current situation) they neared the long gash of crushed and slashed vegetation. After a few silent words, the hatter and hare swung round to the rear of the cavalry, preparing powerful legs with more force behind them than a piledriver and razor throwing knives as streamlined and deadly as raptors for combat, as chess himself prepared to make a strike at the right flank of the foot soldiers.

He slunk as close as he could, then leapt, digging claws the size of butcher's hooks into the nearest guard's throat, and tearing them out again with a soft torrent of blue-black ink. He continued like this, until one officer noticed the bodies (as much as the card soldiers were merciless and precise killers, excellent at following orders and carrying out the queens dirty work, they weren't known for their intelligence) and chess suddenly found a good (or bad, for that matter) two dozen spears pointed his way, then really leapt in action.

The first wave was easy, as turncoat diamonds were thrown this way and that, torn and stained like the pages of a textbook, discarded when the fountain pen has leaked.

Soft muffled cries of pain signalled the hatter and hare's arrival, whatever stood-in for bones shattered by swift, precise kicks and punches and thick, spell ridden, club-marked card sliced easily open by sharp knives. They worked their way forward until they reached the ranks of the queen's personally trained fighters, and suddenly the defensive lives thinned, leaving the guardians of the clubs and spades in a circle, trapped by not only the thick bristle of unpleasantly pointy objects, but a plethora of attack spells, all eager to be used. No, wait, CC noticed suddenly, in the strangely, terrifying clear way that people notice thing when they feel they are liable to die, it wasn't actually a circle.

It was a heart-shape.

"_Oh once I had a kitty, kitty" _chanted a clear, high voice from behind the ranks of scowling guards.

"_And he was just so pretty pretty_

_I fed him up on meat and milk _

_So his fur was soft as silk _

_But then my kitty ran away,_

_So now my kitty has to pay."_

The last line was punctuated by a soft giggle, and the collar around CC's neck blazed white-hot, causing his neck to erupt in pain.

The last thing he saw, before waves of despair and unconsciousness took him, were a pair of crystalline blue eyes, slowly becoming mismatched as the power of all the cards combined in one being.

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**_A/N: Look at the poor purple button down there, _**

**_Give him a click, to show that you care,_**

**_Please review, to tell what you think, _**

**_Was it worth the time and ink?_**


	2. Down and round we go

_**A/N: And here we have, chapter the first - With Mouse being a bit more than a Shameless Plug this time round.**_

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**Chapter 1 - Down and round we go**

_Look past the mirror,_

_Look past your fear _

_See the white rabbit _

_And chase him, my dear._

On the other side of the mirror, it all started with the kind of thin, restless, itchy boredom that gets under your skin, makes you irritable and snappish, makes you want to do everything and nothing at the same time, the boredom borne of monotony, or perhaps it wasn't.

Perhaps it didn't.

At any rate, something, whether it was ka, or fate, or some god's debt paid, something compelled the human known as Mouse Rathmone to wish upon a star that night. She murmured, "Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I make tonight."

Even though she knew, in the sensible part of her mind, one of only the few semi-sane parts left, that it was stupid and immature and probably nothing would come of it. _I wish, _she thought _something really extra-ordinary would happen._

When she woke up the next morning, there was no real change to the world, no eldritch hum signifying the beginning of some greater path. After she was slightly

(awake when all sleep has gone from thee)

more awake, she got up and dressed in her black jeans, and her favourite woollen jumper, royal purple with broad black stripes that made her resemble some psychedelic wasp, then hunted around for her Zippo lighter. When it was nowhere to be found, her good mood faltered slightly, but then she shrugged, and went out, humming the latest Linkin park song merrily.

She went into the garden (although _gardens_ might be more accurate here, about ten acres, eight of which where woodland and only two that were actual lawns and flowers and suchlike) and headed down to the river. Or tried to, at least. Something was decidedly strange about the path this morning. Every time she attempted to tried to turn off the main path to the right direction to the river, it seemed to _twist_, to say, 'No, you're _not_ going there today' and she was back on the broad sandy path that, after the third or fourth occurrence, Mouse could have sworn blind that it was laughing at her.

It was frustrating, to say the least.

After a while, the path began to darken and become more shadowy. Mouse began to hum again, the first thing that came into her head. Weirdly, embarrassingly, it was the teddy-bears picnic.

_If you go down in the woods today, _

_You better go in disguise_

_If you go down in the woods today,_

_Prepare for a big surprise…_

Something rustled behind her.

Mouse swung round and was relieved (and oddly disturbed that she was relieved) to see that it was only a large, pale grey-and-black striped tabby tomcat. It gave her a measuring look, and a soft purr as she stroked it gently, discovering several bald patches on it's neck, vicious burn stains that had only just began to heal. She gave it one more scratch behind the ears, set off again, finding that the path was now less of a path and more of

(down the rabbit hole)

a tunnel. The trees, if trees they actually were, were crowding the edges of the path and seemly leaning and stretching overhead, as if purposely trying to block the light.

When the trees seemingly could get no closer and the lack of light became a pitch darkness, that's when Mouse began to feel as though she should be a bit worried. She had never, even as a small child been afraid of the dark, but this was Unnatural. It was less darkness, and more a sheer un-light that caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand to attention, a weak imitation of a scare technique mastered millions of years ago by most self-respecting mammals.

She reached out to the side of the path, so as to be able to feel her way along…and jerked back, with small cry of surprise. What had been once rough bark was now hard, grainy stone. The path was now truly a tunnel.

No sooner had she thought this, than the ground fell away. Down, down, down, she tumbled, her mouth open in a never-ending howl of surprise. Then, mercifully, she lost consciousness.

Mouse groaned and opened her eyes. There was a pair of huge orange cat's-eyes blocking her vision. The grey tabby tomcat, which had somehow followed her, was sitting on her chest, staring into her face. Apparently satisfied that she was awake, the cat allowed her to sit up to view her surroundings.

She stood up. Huge dark hedges rose up on either side of her, blocking her view. Not ordinary hedges either, but long tangled coils of dark green, nearly black brambles, with inch-long thorns and great blood-red rose-blooms dotted here and there.

She sat down again, because the

(garden? woodland?park-type area?)

place she was in was too strange to deal with right at that moment. Beside her, The Cheshire-Cat stretched and purred. "Welcome," He said, baring his teeth in his thin, savage grin. "To Wonderland."

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**_A/N: Look at the poor purple button down there_**

**_Give him a click, to show that you care_**

**_Please review, to tell what you think_**

**_Was it worth the time and ink?_**


	3. Warning, may frighten small kids

_**A/N: Sorry, this is still a short one, even by my standards, and I hope you enjoy the new and improved version... And thepoem at the start wasn't mine originally, I just corrupted it.**_

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_**Chapter 2 - Warning, May Frighten Small Children**_

_The knave of hearts he stole some tarts_

_All on a summer's day_

_The queen of hearts she was a tart_

_And took him right away..._

Mouse gave a kind of strangled yelp. "You…you… y y you're…."

The creature grinned wider, rearing onto its hind legs and giving the girl an exaggerated bow. In this light, the cat was not grey and black, as previously assumed, but bright silver and that dark, velvety shade of purple that was almost black until it hit the light, and Mouse always thought of as _nightshade purple_. "The Cheshire Cat, at your service, kitten. And you might be….?"

Mouse, without at all thinking, said, "Mouse."

Then she blinked at herself. _I really just said that, didn't I? I told a cat that I was mouse. Hehe._

If it was at all physically possible, the Cat's grin got even wider. "No worries, kitten."

It laughed, an odd, almost strained, purring chuckle, "What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet…"

It paused, and its ear swivelled as though it had just heard something. The Grin faded slightly.

"What? What is it?" Asked Mouse, having cats of her own and therefore trusting his senses rather better than her own, and because of that, she was worried for the second time that day, and beginning to feel that this wouldn't be the last time either. She figured anything that would make the Cheshire Cat's mood darken, even a little bit, must be Pretty Damn Bad.

The feline's only reply was to begin to growl on a rising note. (If _you_ have cats of your own, you'll know what this sounds like, but for those that don't, it sounds something like a mix between a purr and a scream).

Mouse looked at it. Its hackles were raised, and at first she thought it was merely bristling, as ordinary cats do when threatened, but when it became as tall as her shoulder while she was still sitting on the ground, she realised it was growing at a phenomenal rate. The Grin had completely gone now, and in its place was an expression that would most likely make most sensible and sane people hide behind the sofa, and it was only the knowledge that this anger was not directed at her, coupled with the fact that she was neither of this things, that kept Mouse where she was.

One of the Cat's large, usually cheerful orange eyes was now burning like a great iron-works furnace. The other turned bright neon green and pupiless, mutating through a number of rather horrible and unnatural colours beforehand. It fur was by now bristling and crackling, spitting silver and neon purple sparks, and standing on end so much like needles that mouse wouldn't of touched it had you paid her.

This was no longer merely a cheshire cat. This was The Cheshire Cat, without its illusions and glamours, without the shields and barriers that kept it looking and seeming normal (or as normal anything is in wonderland). The creature that now stood next to Mouse towered over her, five times larger than any earthly tiger, spitting and snarling at the things which had made it react in such a manner.

The next moment Mouse saw what they were.

They were the card people.

Not just the hearts, but the spades and clubs and the diamonds as well, nor was it just one pack.

It was thousands.

Mouse didn't get to see any more detail after that, because at that moment, as she was squaring up to fight, something about the size and weight of a single-bed mattress (She realized later that it was CC's tail) hit her in the stomach and threw her through the hedge.

For the second time that day, Mouse fainted.

i0i0i0i0i0i0i

When she started to come to, she was aware of voices above her, as though a bunch of people were crowded around her.

"Nothing like Alice…."

"Look at her clothes…"

"So strange…like a boy's…"

This last comment made her sit up indignantly, only to discover her arms were covered in scratches from the hedge-coils, and that her dark hair was full of hay, apparently the result of some attempt to bring her 'round. She ignored both these, and kicked at whatever was obstructing her view.

"I'm not a boy!" She yelled, finding that anger was a rather good way of getting rid of the headache that had started to build. "Just because I don't wear a..a pink frilly skirt and wear a bow on my head doesn't mean I'm not a gir…"

She trailed off, having noticed, at this point, who (or what for that matter) exactly she was speaking to.

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**_A/N: You know the jingle, you should know what to do,_**

**_I've written, you've read, now read and review!_**

**_(Please)_**


	4. Encounters of the third kind, dudes

_**A/N: Sorry this one's taken so long to put out, I have no excuses. Oh and welcome to my new reader, the anonymous Jamie Birdsong!**

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_**Chapter 3 - Encounters of the third kind**_

_There are many-a tale_

_Found under the hill _

_And if they're not fled_

_There they are still_

There was a large, slightly cross-eyed hare - she was sure it was a hare, because rabbits, to the best of her knowledge, did not know such colourful curses as the creature was now muttering (Mouse realised it must have been he she kicked) as he rubbed his clearly sore…ehem.

Sitting by the hare was a rather strange looking person, Mouse didn't know whether or not it was meant to be male or female, sporting a large, bright mauve top hat, with a ticket marked 6/10 shoved in the brim.

From her rather restricted knowledge of wonderland, having only ever read the books as a little kid, she realized that these could only be the March hare and the mad hatter.

There was a large dormouse asleep on the grass next to them.

Still watching her intently where two other creatures, but who didn't belong in wonderland, but in the chess borders, and also to a children's nursery-rhyme.

_The lion and the unicorn fought for the crown_

_The lion fought the unicorn all round town_

_Some gave 'em white bread, some gave 'em brown_

_Some gave 'em plum cake and drummed 'em outta town._

"You know, kitten," Said the lion in a slow, rich voice, "it is not at all polite to stare."

Mouse shook her head, clearing it. "Sorry. I just always wondered where they drummed you to. And now I know. Which is good." She added, feeling incredibly stupid all of a sudden.

The unicorn curled its lip in distaste. "Oh no my dear, that's not it _at all_. They could never force us to move _anywhere. _We came here of our own free will."

"But why, though?" She asked, confused.

Hare spoke up, his long ears flat against his skull and tawny eyes blazing, "Because the queen is insane, you moron! She killed the caterpillar, and was gonna kill us! And she…she…"

He stopped, overwrought, and Hatter continued, quietly and sadly. "She stole our suits."

Mouse gave him a blank look, then realisation dawned. Suits of playing cards. As the hierarchies of the looking glass world ran on chess, Wonderland's ran on cards. And now the queen of hearts, who had always been teetering on the edge of the abyss, as far as her mind was concerned, had taken _all _the cards.

Now from what Mouse knew of wonderland, it was pretty twisted normally, but this was just _wrong_.

"Tell which suit belongs to who." She said, getting up and sitting next to hatter and hare, and putting an arm round each. The hatter smelled metallic and inky, like quicksilver and wool dyes. The Hare smelled sweet and dusty, like hayfields in the summer.

"And then I'll try to help."

696

By the time they had finished, it was nearing dusk. Mouse was a little surprised at this, until the Lion told her that it was around noon that she had come into wonderland, whereas it had only been early morning in her world.

But anyway.

The queen, as was previously made obvious, owned the suit of hearts, due to her vain and volatile nature.

The owner of the suit of spades was the Cheshire Cat.

"He's the only one" Hare had told her, "with enough natural power to be able to handle a suit on his own without going completely homicidal on us."

Mouse had agreed, recalling the creature that CC had become in the maze.

Hatter and Hare, and technically the dormouse too, owned the clubs, the third most powerful suit.

The caterpillar used to own the suit of diamonds, but due to his precognitive abilities, he had been unable and unwilling to stop the queen when she had come and taken his cards and killed him. So now, also due to the dimensional shifts that had happened when the Queen had risen to insanity, the diamonds now belonged to the Lion and the unicorn.

So now Mouse just sat and watched the blue and gold and scarlet aurora-like display that was sunset in Wonderland, and tried to come up with a plan to help them.

She hoped the Cheshire Cat was alright – Most of her plans included him.

But of course, just as she thought this, he stumbled around the corner, and collapsed.

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**_A/N: You've heard the jingle, you should know what to do,_**

**_I've written, you've read, now read and review!_**

**_(Please)_**


	5. Here is the candle to light me

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A/N: Chapter the fourth, folks, hope you enjoy. By-the-by, the start ryhme isn't mine - it's part of a poem in a picture book I loved as a little kid. Oh, and thanks to ML for reviewing. This chapter's for you.

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_**Chapter 4 - Here is the candle to light me to bed...**_

_Hist! Hark!_

_The night is very dark_

_And we've to go a mile or so_

_Across the wild park_

There was a moment where everything seemed to freeze.

Then Mouse came to herself, and ran over to where the Cheshire Cat was lying motionless on the darkening grass, his fur dulled back to black and grey and matted with an opaque liquid she couldn't and didn't really want to identify. She knelt down to assess the amount of damage the card people had done to him.

Hare came with her, and after a moment of poking and prodding, he said "There's not much physically wrong with him- a few cuts and scratches, but mostly I think he's just drained from using that amount of power without a focus."

_Without the spades, you mean_ Mouse added silently. She scooped up the Cat without saying a word, noting how odd he felt in her arms – like…well she couldn't really describe it. He felt more like a cat-sized lizard, all muscle and bone without a ounce of fat of any kind, for as she well knew, all earthly mammals, particularly cats, had at least some bodily slack. The creature in she was holding had nothing of the sort, and it unnerved her slightly.

She covered this by saying "I don't know whether cold and hot and that apply to you people, but I think it's getting kinda chilly out here."

Hatter nodded, and said slowly, "You can come to our place. It's a bit of a mess without the magic to clean it up, but at least it's warm and dry."

With that, she turned and led the way.

696

The cottage wasn't just a mess. It was a complete PIGSTY. Mouse was forcibly reminded of her own bedroom at home, when she hadn't tidied it in at least a couple of days. But she kept a straight face, and asked the hatter if there was a place she could put CC down on.

Hare led the way upstairs, to a bedroom with a single bed. There was duvet folded in the corner, and after laying the still comatose Cat on the mattress, Mouse reached out to put it over the creature, when her wrist was grabbed by a sharp-clawed, furred hand.

"Don't." Said Hare, releasing her. "Just…Don't."

He glanced at the duvet, then looked away quickly, shuddering.

She saw, now, why he didn't want her to touch it.

Before, she had thought it chequered grey and white. But she now saw that the supposed grey was more than that. It was more like a total lack of colour and light, more like the anti-colour a void, and Mouse discovered that she couldn't look at the edge between the void and the normal material. It made her nauseous, and she realised that these grey areas on the eiderdown were the holes left from the cards. She shook her head, suddenly dizzy.

"What do we do now?" she asked the hare, indicating Cat lying on the bed.

An odd expression flashed over his face, gone too quickly for her to read.

"We wait."

After about five or six hours, Mouse couldn't be sure, as her watch had decided it was a compass and only moved when she turned around, there was no signs of improvement. She and Hare had had an argument over who waited outside the door, and Hare had won on the fact that if the Cheshire Cat woke up with amnesia, he would be more likely to attack a human than someone from his own world, so Mouse was forced to wait downstairs with the others.

Unicorn was trying to teach her the basics of a wonderland and chess-borders board game called Rathmoles, which consisted of a flat board with small indents for the pieces, which looked like flat marbles, and the rules seemed to be a cross between draughts and tic-tac-toe, then trying to show her how to use a sword (Not really necessary – mouse had done archery and stunt-sword practice before…never mind) but she wasn't really listening. She was desperately sifting through all her knowledge of magical beings and Fae, along with any details about the looking glass and wonderland that she could dreg up from her memory, for anything that could possibly help the Cheshire Cat. Suddenly, a line from a favourite TV show popped into her head.

"_Blood is life, lackbrain. Why do you think we eat it? It's what keeps you going. Makes you warm. Makes you hard. Makes you other than dead." _

She stood up suddenly, knocking the Rathmoles board to the floor.

She knew what she had to do.

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**_A/N: Look at the poor purple button down there, _**

**_Give him a click, to show that you care_**

**_Please review, tell what you think,_**

**_Was it worth the time and ink?_**


	6. The red stuff, are you made of it?

_**A/N: I'm none too pleased with this chapter, or maybe I'm just very tired. It's probably the former. I need coffee. Enjoy!**_

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_**Chapter 5 - The Red Stuff. Are you made of it?**_

_Kitty cat, kitty cat what did you do?_

_There's blood on the floor, on the pot, in the stew,_

_Kitty cat, kitty cat what have you done?_

_I bit the queen's wrist right down to the bone_

_(that's okay then)_

"Oh no bloody way!" Yelled Hare, when Mouse told him her plan. "No bloody way am I gonna let you just waltz in there and make him bite you. You have absolutely no idea what the consequences could be!"

She ignored him, kicked him AGAIN, dodged the retaliating blow, and barrelled her way into the room, where Cat was still lying motionless on the bed. She flopped down next to him, thought for minute, then started rummaging around in her pockets.

Hatter, Unicorn and Lion came up to see what hare had been yelling about.

"What's wrong?" Asked hatter, coming to stand behind hare. The anthro rolled his eyes, and jerked a thumb (he had hands more than paws) at mouse sitting on the edge of the bed.

"The stupid idiot human thinks she can help the Cheshire Cat by making him drink her blood."

"I'm not an idiot," said Mouse without looking up from emptying her pockets "And I'm not stupid. I'm only gonna give him a pint or so at most– s'not like I'm letting him drain me or anything."

Unicorn looked nervous at the mention of blood-drinking, but Lion tilted his head to one side, and rumbled, "Actually, she has a point. Human blood is pretty powerful, and it will probably help him regenerate. If it were up to me, I'd let her have a shot at it."

"Thank you," Mouse said heatedly, giving Hare a triumphant look. Her face scrunched in concentration for a moment, then she laughed happily. "Aha! Got it!"

She pulled her brother's pen knife out of her pocket. She had felt slightly guilty about stealing it at the time, but now she was almost pathetically grateful for the razor-sharp blade, swore to herself to get one of her own when all this was over.

Her mouth tightened at the corners as she cut the soft tissue on the ball of her hand, but other than that she made no sound. She waited a moment for the blood to well up, while gently pushing open CC's jaws, noticing how small he seemed all of a sudden. When there was enough blood collected on the surface of her skin, Mouse tilted her hand so that it started to drip down into the unconscious creature's mouth.

There was a tense moment, and then, to everyone's relief, Cat's throat instinctively began to swallow the liquid. Mouse lowered her hand to his mouth so more would go in, but when skin met fur

Flash

An image; the march hare, turned inside out, all his innards clockwork….

_Flash_

The mad hatter; ten feet tall, eyes bright red and horribly blank…

_**Flash**_

The Cheshire cat himself, now long- limbed, tall and emaciated and grey-green, with tattoos in the place of his stripes…

She thought: _Is this what will be?_

The Cat said: _Yes. But only if we fail._

_**FLASH**_

A girl, not herself, dressed in late Victorian clothing, fighting a Queen-like monster…

The Cat said: **_Time is relative, and round here he likes to be a contortionist._**

_And, in the last moment before the vision faded, there was an image of herself, dressed in white, with scarring and expression of fierce joy on her face, astride a white winged horse and leading an airborne cavalry into battle._

Then darkness.

Mouse groaned and opened her eyes. There was a huge pair of orange cat's eyes blocking her vision. She smiled and said "Y'know, I have the strangest feeling of déjà vu."

The cat grinned back, and leapt from her chest onto the bed. "You're okay, then?" he gave a purring chuckle, every ounce of his strength and power apparently renewed.

Mouse sat up, discovering herself on the floor. "Yeah, and apparently you are too. What happened?"

Hare put a strong furred hand on her arm and helped her up. "I'm not entirely sure, but…"

Before he could say any more, the doorbell rang.

Cat bounded down the stairs, shifting his form slightly as he went. By the time mouse and the others got downstairs, he was at the front door, he stood on his back legs, and was about the same height as hare, that is, roughly a head taller than Mouse. He waited for her to stand next to him, then opened the door.

The Cheshire Cat sneered, his orange eyes narrowing.

It was the white rabbit.

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**_A/N: you've heard the jingle, you should know what to do,_**

**_I've written, you've read, now read and review!_**

**_(Please)_**


	7. Fixations of inertia

_**A/N: Okay there's not a great deal of alteration in the chapter - I've just polished it up slightly. Oh, and warnings for use of the f-word and female dogs. Enjoy!**_

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_**Chapter 6 - Fixations on Inertia**_

_Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run_

_Here comes the hunter with her gun, gun, gun_

_She won't get by without his rabbit pie_

_So run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run_

The white rabbit moved into the room, not hopping, Mouse noticed, but walking in measured, slightly bouncing steps, as she had noticed Hare doing. The rabbit wrinkled his nose, like a snob who has noticed an under-class citizen at a party where they were not invited.

"So," He sneered, staring at Mouse like an exhibit in a museum. She stared back as best as she could, but the red-rimed gaze was quite disconcerting. "It's come down to this, has it. You honestly think that I wouldn't, more to the point, that her majesty wouldn't notice ironsider scum like this using MY portals?"

Cat stepped up to the rabbit, looking openly as scornful as a true feline facing a bunny that had had the idiocy and audacity to stand its ground, and not go running away.

"You have," He said, speaking in clipped tones, a barely restrained anger lying just under the surface of the words, "A _lot_ of guts coming here, bunny-boy. I don't know who you think owns the keys to the kingdom round here, but it isn't you," he grabbed the rabbit by the neck, "and it sure as _hell_ isn't your so-called queen."

He growled low in his throat, making sure the albino knew how badly he had pissed him off.

The rabbit spluttered, pawing at the claws around his neck. "Y-you c-can't do anything to me. Her majesty has the Ace of spades, and you know you can't put THAT in jeopardy."

CC made a disgusted noise, and shoved the now-smirking rabbit out the door, slamming it in his face.

Mouse came forward and put a hand onto the soft fur CC's back, resisting the urge to stroke it, just as he was shrinking back to his more ordinary size.

"What was all that about? What did he mean by the ace of spades?"

Cat jumped onto one of the dilapidated armchairs, and didn't answer, apparently having become absorbed with the state of his fur.

After a while, when Mouse made no move to go away, he sighed and said, "I'll try and put this in a way you can understand more clearly. Do you know what happens to a battery when the charger is destroyed? When the battery runs out, and there's no place to get more energy…"

"The battery goes flat." Mouse finished, cottoning on finally. "The Ace of spades is your main card. It's your charger. Destroy that, and you die."

"Correction, kitten." Replied the Cat. "I am the Ace of spades. Rip it up, and I don't just die – I cease to exist. Caput. They'll be no record of me, here or in your world. Even the spades will be replaced by some other symbol, by some other idiotic name."

Mouse winced at the Cat's desolate tone, and snapped, striding across to the chair, and picking the creature up by the scuff without any thought to dignity or pride.

"Now look here," She said, shaking him like a kitten. He let her as well, too astonished to react. "I don't know what happened to you, or why you pulled me into this _fucking_ mess in the first place, nor do I greatly care. But I know _you,_ and that's why you will NOT give up, you will NOT use that tone, and" she added, to everyone now, "You will ALL HELP ME TO BEAT THIS BITCH NOW!"

With that, she stormed out into the tulgy wood, without waiting for and answer, and leaving a stunned silence in her wake.

After a moment, hatter spoke. "Well, she's not Alice, that's for sure."

Wordlessly, Hare began to gather knives from the kitchen.

696

Mouse marched through the wood, crashing through indignant undergrowth, and ignoring the signs inscribed with such cheerful slogans as: "GO BACK", "YOU ARE HERE, ONLY IDIOTS GO HERE" and "CASTLE AHEAD – PLEASE AVOID" – far too absorbed in her own thoughts to do anything but let her feet take her where they seemed to know to go.

_Stupid cat, _she fumed silently _Stupid Hare, stupid everyone… _

A twig snapped up ahead, jerking her out of her thoughts. She almost laughed out loud when she saw who it was.

_Here, bunny, bunny, bunny…_

She was feeling better already, and white fur gloves would warm her hands nicely. Mouse lunged at the rabbit before he could even blink, and grabbed him around the neck. She snarled, "Ironsider scum, Huh? Ironsider scum? Well I'll show you what this ironsider can do, you mewling, treacherous white lab rat!" She grinned madly, unconsciously mimicking CC in the golden age of wonderland.

She was so intent on twisting the white rabbit's head from his neck, that she didn't notice the card guards that crept up behind her and knocked her out cold.

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**_A/N: you've heard the jingle, you should know what to do,_**

**_I've written, you've read, now read and review!_**

**_(Please)_**


	8. Degrees of madness

_**A/N: Next chapter...no excuse for lateness cariad.**_

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Chapter 7 – variating degrees of madness

_Hickory-dickory dock,_

_Two mice ran up the clock_

_The clock struck one,_

_And the other one got away with minor injuries,_

_Hickory-dickory dock_

_I have got, _Thought Mouse as she awoke,_ to stop getting knocked out. _

She opened her eyes, finding herself on the floor of a hard, cold stone cell, and sat up …or at least tried to. It didn't hurt, exactly, it was more like her muscles had no memory of how to get into a sitting position, and after a few tries she managed to roll onto her stomach instead, and then stand up. She walked over to the bars, finding that the lock was too high up, even to jump. So she started pacing the cell, and it was only after the third or fourth lap, that she realised she had been walking on all fours.

She looked down.

Instead of her hands and arms, there was a pair of small, pink paws and some dark-brown furred front legs.

She strained her head over her shoulder, accidentally poking herself in the eye with a set of whiskers that seemed to have grown on her nose.

Instead of an ordinary human butt, she could see a brown furred back, and more interestingly, a long bald tail.

Mouse had been turned…into a mouse.

_Fury said to the mouse…something about a house. _She giggled, only vaguely surprised that she still had her own voice. She couldn't remember the rest, but it didn't matter.

_What's my name? A mouse…of a mouse…to a mouse…O mouse…not my name. What I'm called, not my name. _Her face crumpled slightly, then brightened again.

"Maybe it is Mouse." She said, most likely knowing full well that talking to one's self is generally the first sign of madness. "It's what I'm called, and what you're called is generally your name isn't it?

_**The name of the song is called "Haddock's Eyes"**_

_**The name is really "The Aged Aged Man"**_

_**The song is called, "Ways and Means"**_

_**The song is "A-sitting On A Gate"**_

Mouse frowned again, unhappy that the white knight's voice had pointed this out to her. "Then it's not Mouse. Mouse is just what my name is called, not what I am. I think, you know, that I'm quite mad." She told thin air, and giggled again.

_**We're all mad here.**_

_CC…oh._

Clarity came rushing back to her. "Names don't matter!" She half- yelled, finding that she COULD stand on two legs, after all "I know I call myself mouse, and that's all that matters. Anyway, I know my name is Amy, but it's a stupid name. I call myself Mouse, but I'm not a mouse, I'm human girl!"

On the word girl, she changed back into one, discovering that the lock was only a latch, and that she could lift it quite easily.

She crept out, keeping to the shadows, and hoping no card guards saw her. Unfortunately but naturally, as these things tend to go, as she edged round a corner in, the long, winding passage way, she walk slap bang into a garrison of them.

There was a beat of stillness

_(the panther)_

Then all hell broke loose.

The first card that came at her, a rather stupid ten of clubs, received

_(received knife and fork with a growl)_

a tearing bite on his throat that nearly decapitated him. Ignoring the cuts and slashes she was getting from spears and the occasional curved sword, she tore into the crowd, kicking and punching and stabbing with a swiftly grabbed spear, fighting like a berserker (which is precisely what she was, of course) until the ones who went down learnt to stay down, and the others learnt to run away.

_(and concluded the banquet by eating the owl)_

Mouse smiled as she walked away from the garrison, her arms stained up to the elbows in ink. She knew it was ink, because it was a rather pretty shade of blue, and she could still taste it in her mouth, the sickly-sweetness that would've made Amy retch, but made mouse lick her lips.

_Tooth and claw, _She thought, as she strolled towards the throne room, _is always the most fun way to kill things._

She really was feeling a lot better now.

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**_A/N: You know the drill_**

**_Don't make me ill!_**


	9. Rockabye baby

_**A/N: Pants...hard work... I HATE hard work...I hope you appreciate this, people.**_

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Chapter 8 – rock-a-bye baby

_There is the candle to light me to bed,_

_Here is the chopper to chop off your head_

_And if I die before I wake_

_I pray my god my soul shall take_

Mouse walked into the throne room head held high, an insane smirk on her face. It died when she thought there was no-one in there with her. She was mistaken.

The white rabbit scampered from the shadows, apparently none the worse for their last encounter. He made an odd squeaking noise at the back of his throat when he realized who she was, and tried to dash past her.

Unfortunately for him, the rabbit wasn't fast enough.

Mouse shot out a hand, almost too quick to see, and grabbed the rodent around the neck, the smirk returning.

"No guards to save you now, bunny-boy" She laughed, and snapped the white rabbit's

_(a rabbit in a waistcoat and a WATCH!)_

neck, causing his struggles to stop instantly.

She held the still-warm corpse up by the back of its waistcoat, shaking it at whoever might be watching. "I killed your messenger!" She shouted at the shadows, giving the dead rabbit another jiggle, making its head bob grotesquely. "And I'm gonna hunt you down and kill you slowly, unless you stop with all the sending minions only crap!"

"_Once there was a kitty-cat_

_He was only mine, at that_

_You stole my kitty far from here_

_All the worse for you, my dear."_

Mouse froze, dropping the rabbit.

That voice…it was somehow familiar. She suddenly felt sick to her stomach when the speaker stepped from the shadows.

"Alice…" She breathed.

"Yes, but the spelling's all all wrong." As Mouse watched, half-incredulous, the

_(insanity faire)_

crazed famous girl, still appearing to be not more than seven or eight years old,

_(seven and a half precisely)_

plucked the letters A-L-I-C-E from thin air, stamped on them with delicately black-booted feet, as they scurried around on the stone floor like spiders, and replaced them with the letters A-L-Y-S-S.

"You see, now that's my name. Alyss." She pronounced it slightly differently, like Al-leis, rather than Al-ess.

Alyss was about the same height as Mouse, maybe slightly shorter, making her around 4"8 to 5"1.Her clothing was similar to the design of the original, well known blue dress, but it was now bright, carnal red, with designs of hearts…and the other suits...in black.

Above that, her large, round mismatched eyes glittered with insanity, red and black, under her long hair, once blond but now gone the same way as her eyes. She laughed, a high, innocent sound that made the hairs on the back of Mouse's neck prickle. "What's the matter, Amy, cat got you're tongue? Or did he get more than that?"

Mouse replied through gritted teeth, trying really hard not think of

_(pink elephants)_

the implications of the question. "You've gone insane."

Alyss laughed again. "Oh of course, of course, of course! I've gone insane. Anyone at all who cares to stay here does."

"Nu-uh, you misunderstand me. I said insane. No-one here, save you, is actually insane. They're just mad. There's a difference." The older-looking girl shook her head, and ironic smile twisting one corner of her mouth.

The other turned her head to one side, lips pursed. "And the difference might be…?"

"Being mad may be bad, but the insane are a pain." Mouse laughed and grinned, winking at Alyss, who screamed, high pitched with rage, and leapt at her.

The teenager dodged to one side, half-expecting the attack. She swung her head around, scanning the room for a weapon. She spotted and shard of stone or some kind of metal, it was hard to tell in this light, half-hidden in the corner of the throne room. She dove towards it… but too slow.

Before she could reach it, she felt Alyss' iron grip on her ankle, dragging her down. The queen managed to rip a bleeding hole in Mouse's leg, before, instead of struggling, she turned and stomped on the Queen's wrist with her other foot. Alyss screeched again wordlessly, this time in pain as well as rage, and loosed her hold of Mouse's foot, giving the human enough time to wriggle free and dash painfully for the piece of rubble.

She swept the long shard of stone (as she now saw it was) up just in time enough to swing it like a cricket bat

_(amy's unconscious, hit herself with the bat)_

into Alyss's face as she tried to attack her from behind, throwing her against an unlit torch, which immediately ignited. Had there being an onlooker at the scene, they would have seen Mouse's eyes seem to glow orange from the fire.

She was really ANGRY now.

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_**A/N: Drink Appletizer with Friends!**_

**_Remember to review!_**


	10. Pieces of thee

_**A/N: You know, I think I'm going slightly mad. ( Fudge1's words, not my own ) Oh, apoligies for the weird formatting, I dunno what happened.**_

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Chapter nine – pieces of thee

_One two three four five,_

_Once I caught a cat alive_

_Why did I let him go?_

_Because he talked me into doing so!_

The door opened and CC, Hare, Hatter, the Lion and the Unicorn entered, still covered in a large amount of ink from fight though the card guards to get into the castle and to the throne room, both the felines licking their paws free of muck as they went, and They saw it all immediately: Alyss's dead body, hardly qualifying to be really called not much more than a mess of blood and bone on the floor, and Mouse standing over it, covered in

_(blue blood, royal gore)_

a mixture of scarlet blood and blue ink.  
"So she's dead and gone for good?" said the Cheshire Cat, only half-questioning and showing his fangs in the first genuine grin in years.  
"Yeah," Mouse said absently. She was looking back at the throne. Slowly she started walking towards it.  
The creatures exchanged glances.  
Mouse sat down on the throne and picked the crown, discarded at some point during the fight, up off the floor. She studied it for a few moments.  
"Mouse, what are you doing?" Hare said in a worried voice, taking a step forward.  
For a moment, the girl didn't reply. She was turning the

_(and her eyes were as black as glass)_

obsidian crown over in her hands, staring with a kind of morbid fascination at her reflection in the dark red, glassy stones.

"Such a simple thing." She murmured, running her hands over the nine tines of the head piece and then staring blankly at the red liquid that the vicious points drew. "But it was all the power, you know. She was just a crazy little girl without it." She snorted. "But then, she was just a crazy little girl with it, so that wasn't much use." Mouse giggled wildly, dropped the

_(absolute power corrupts absolutely)_

crown on the floor with a resounding _CLANK_ and hopped off the throne again, making a beeline for Cat.

She picked him up like a kitten, and he was too surprised to resist, even when she tickled him under the chin.

"What do you want cat? Hmm? Whaddya want kitty-cat?"

That's when he realised something was wrong and she needed to snap out of it. So he did what all cats (ordinary or otherwise) do when in a tight spot – and scratched her across the face.

She gasped in pain and surprise (more the latter than the former), dropped the cat like a hot coal and slowly raised her hand to her face, where three, deep, angry red cuts were beginning to form. The world wobbled dangerously, but somehow she managed to stay on her feet.

"What" she asked, staring at her companions, "Did I do?"

696

The throne was rubble.

The crown was shards, and Mouse had left the body to Cat, who wouldn't tell her what he'd done with it, and from the marks on his face when he returned, she decided she didn't really want to know either.

"Where're our suits, then?" Questioned the unicorn, voicing everyone's thoughts.

_I don't know _was on the tip of Mouse's tongue.

Then there was an odd feeling, a kind of mental whisper on the corner of her mind, coming from the collapsed black marble shards of the throne. She turned towards it, and as though in a trance, she started to pull at the largest piece of rubble. Cat, hare and hatter, realising what she was trying to do, went to help her, (Cat flowing into his semi-humanoid form to do so) and soon, between the four of them, they had uncovered a dark greyish metal box, about the size of Mouse's head.

CC reached out to pick it up – then recoiled, hissing in pain.

"You'll have to do it, kitten." He gasped, and mouse now saw that the pads of his paws were red-raw and burnt, as though he had placed them flat on a boiling hot stove. "It's iron. None of us can touch it."

_Huh? _She thought, then remembered, _Iron is to the Fae what silver is to werewolves. Corrosive poison. The wonderlanders must be some flavour of Faery._

She picked up the box, and opened the lid.

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**_A/N: Apple! Review!_**


	11. Fables of reflections, or THE END

_**A/N: And we are having the end! Extreme extreme extreme gratefulness to those who have it thus far. By-the-by the little verse isn't mine. I haven't even tampered with it. It belongs to some probably-dead italian thinker guy. **_

_**Oh, and a little warning for this chapter: It gets weird. Very, very weird, to the point where I think Muse had gotten into the catnip when he made me write this. Make your own conclusions. And the dates are apparently the real ones, that you can see on her gravestone in the New Forest.**_

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Chapter 10 – Fables of Reflections

_What is life? A frenzy. _

_What is life? An illusion, shadow, fiction._

_And the greatest good is of slightest worth_

_As all of life is a dream_

_As all of dreams are life_

_She picked up the box and opened the lid. _

Instantly, Mouse was blinded by the force of shining, ruby-coloured light , mixed with a dark swirling, smoke-like substance that seemed to whisper and chatter indistinctly as it poured out of the dull metal container. As she watched, the light and smoke coalesced into four pairs of separate and distinct shapes - each made up by the plain suit and its tarot counterpart.

_Hearts – cups._

_Spades – swords._

_Clubs – wands._

_Diamonds – pentacles._

The shapes, after a moment, as though they were getting their bearings after being trapped in the iron, began to flow towards their respective owners, who all seemed to bigger somehow, brighter somehow, as though some inner light had been turned on as their symbols touched them, and (strangely this did not happen to the Cheshire Cat,) markings on fur and clothes faded into view, as though they had been there all along.

At last, after what felt like at least half an hour, there was only the heart-cup symbol floating in the air above the box (Mouse had put it on the ground as soon as the fireworks display started) like it was unsure of where to go. Suddenly it began to glow brighter and brighter, a mini super-nova in the dark stone room.

Mouse held her breath.

The Heart-cup pulsed for another minute, then swirled in on itself, like the others had and flowed, no, _threw_ itself at it's new owner.

The Cheshire Cat.

As the red light was absorbed by the black leather collar created by the shadow-smoke for the spade suit (primarily by the silver spade-shaped tag that hung off it), a physical change came over Cat. He grew larger, longer legged, and thinner, until his stature was almost that of the hairless, emaciated creature from Mouse's vision, but more slender, as apposed to gaunt. The colour of his coat changed, the silver bleeding into a glossy, red-and-black roan, and the nightshade purple fading out of his stripes until there was only a shining, lightning black. His grin grew to a size that, if you were to see it,

(you would even say it glows)

you would be afraid of his loping the top of his own head off.

Also, for an reason unbeknown to Mouse, several gold hoops appeared in his left ear.

The most startling change was his eyes – as they were no longer simply orange, but orange and red and yellow, ranging from the darkest maroon of dried blood, to the hot coppery colour of a dying fire, to palest buttercup shade of yellow. These colours swirled and clamoured behind the void-black of his slit-pupils.

The new (and rightful, if Mouse was any judge) ruler of wonderland half closed his vibrant eyes, shuddered as though getting used to treble the power he had before the previous owner of the hearts had been killed, then lifted his head, and looked Mouse.

**_P_****_OWER. _**

Mouse wasn't entirely sure what happened after that.

_"c'mon," he said, and his voice was different too, deeper, with an odd candence to it that hadn't been there before. "I've something to show you"._

_Mouse hesitated, and The unicorn, it's mane and tail now crimson and it's single, anterlopian horn wrapped in threads of red like a candy-cane, gave her a nudge forward, to…_

_To…_

_Mouse went. _

_She followed chess out to a kind of courtyard, lamps lit against the darkening skies, and roses dozing fitfully in the borders, several of whom woke up with cries that alternated between surprise, alarm, and a few even joy. Chess barely gave them a glance, stalking over to the centre of the courtyard to what lay there, and lying down, sphinx-like, on one of the nearby stone benches._

_It was a tombstone, and it read:_

_Alice pleasance liddell_

_1852-1934_

_great friend, great saviour, great noblity_

_T'was Brillig and the slithy toves_

_Did gyre and gimble in the wabe_

_All mimsy were the borogroves_

_And the mome-raths outgrabe_

_Mouse looked at Cat, startled. _

"_But I just killed alice!" she cried._

_He shook his head. "you killed an aspect of her. A memory of her darker half, as it were." He sighed, and mouse sat down, and unthinking, put an arm around the feline's narrow shoulders, feeling sleek fur and hard muscle under her hand._

"_What? What's wrong now?"_

_He sighed again, and turned to her, looking directly at her. And she knew, without words, she knew. _

_A thin laugh escaped her mouth, gone as quickly as it had come. _

Kiss the king to change him to a handsome prince.

_She leaned forward, and, just for a moment, there was fur against her lips, but then there wasn't, there was only lips against lips, tongue against tongue, and long, strong fingers in her hair._

_Then it was over, and eyes the colour of fire and sunsets met her own._

6969

The next thing she knew, her aunt was shaking her. "Amy, Amy! Are you alright?"

She sat up, and discovered she was sitting on the main path leading down to the river, at her aunt's place in Ireland. No hatter, no hare, no unicorn, no lion.

And no CC.

She focused on her aunt. "What? Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Must've … I'm fine."

Was it all a dream? Did I hit my head on my way down here? Was any of it real? 

"Amy, what on earth is that thing on your wrist?"

She looked. There was a bracelet on her right wrist, made of three thin chains of ametal she couldn't identify. One was red, one was black, and the third seemed to be some kind of fibre optic, because there was no such thing as transparent metal, right?

Right?

There was a number of charms on the bracelet, a claw from something pretty big, a chip of something that she thought was

_(if you go down in the woods today)_

horn or ivory wrapped in a shining red hair that felt like horse's, and circle-within-diamond symbol. There was a tiny hat made from some

_(you better go in disguise)_

smooth-yet-stiff fabric, a silver model of what looked like a

_(if you go down in the woods today)_

large rabbit's paw, and a black club symbol with a thick red line splitting it in half. And lastly, there was a gold hoop, too large and thin to be called a ring, a silver shape that she first took to be a half-moon, but on closer inspection

_(be sure of a big surprise)_

proved to be a silver grin, and a larger spade symbol, with the point elongated so it resembled a sword, a blood red heart in centre, and an inscription on the back:-

_Keep Grinning, U, L, MH, MH, CC._

Oh, it hadn't been a dream, alright.

It hadn't been a dream.

No. Not a dream at all.

Right?

**END **

**_WATCH OUT FOR WRITER'S BLOCK, BY FUDGE1 AND MOUSEWOLF, COMING SOON TO A COMPUTER NEAR YOU!

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A/N: Please review this fic of mine.

So I will know that you took time,

And my efforts weren't a waste of ink,

Click the button, and write what you think.


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